We
travel to Masai Mara through some beautiful scenery. Do not be fooled -
the seven year drought has left this area parched. Although you will see
some greenery, it is early in the drive. The further north we go we enter an
area of elevated volcanic activity in the far past. The ground is covered with
pumice-like stone of volcanic origin and the soil is as much pebbles and sand as
dirt. There is little vegetation and virtually no crops. The primary
vegetation, other than dry grass is the Mara tree. The name
Masai Mara means "spotted plain" - the Mara (plain) is spotted with
the Moro trees.

The
pictures below are not mountains, they are calderas. I counted as many as
13 of the old volcanic sites within sight along one section of straight
road.

This
is the central communications center for Kenya. This is where they receive
and distribute satellite information.

And again we pass road side businesses

This
gas station is not one-of-a-kind

Fencing
around a couple huts

A
teenager herding his sheep. There were quite a few on all the roads and Hodge did a good
job the entire trip in avoiding them .

This
is a Maasai - notice the red shirt and the cloth that ties at the shoulder?
Additionally, I never saw a male Maasai without a stick, and on several
occasions, they were carrying their spears.

On one hand we see abandoned buildings here on the plain

And on the other hand

We see this fancy restaurant, with a large welcome sign, out in the middle of
nowhere.

But more often we only see acres of parched, rocky, sandy land - as far as the eye
can see

Here
we have Maasai women washing the robes and hanging them on thorn bushes to
dry.

The
cows and sheep wander

The men stand in the shade a distance away.

Just
where would the cattle and sheep go anyway?

We
arrive at the Masai Mara National Reserve

We
had no idea how much we would love the Reserve and the Keekerok Lodge

Take
a look at the grounds

And our cabins

And
our rooms

And
best of all, the lodge had a small lake full of Hippos just down the way a
bit.

(More - very much more - on the Hippos)

Go past the birds,

Past
the macabre pile of animal skulls at the entrance to the board walk

And
there are hippopotamuses!

And
very ugly _________ Catfish - see the mouth?

See it now?

Maybe
they're so ugly because their primary

diet
is hippopotamus poo!

Birds gather at places around the pool

But we are entranced by the Hippos

The
beautiful pool, reflecting the sky. See the hippo noses and ears?

Out
on safari - our first find is a Wart Hog - notice how they get on their knees to
feed.

As
we go out into the field, we pass the Airport.

As luck would have it, an aircraft landed as we passed. It landed, dropped
passengers unloaded
luggage,
packed up and left within 20 minutes. At many of these moreremote
locations, driving would take too long and be too uncomfortable (tell
us about it!) so tourists are encouraged to fly in and be picked up by
a van from their lodge.

A
Secretary Bird -

The
heaviest bird that can still fly. They weigh around 25 pounds. They
actually walk most of the time, hunting for

small
animals and snakes. When they find them they jump high in the air,
flapping their wings. We saw one doing just that and it was both surprising
and a bit frightening. I don't think the bird caught anything this one time.

Our
first cheetah on his reserve. It was feeding on a kill. We couldn't
really see what was being eaten

It might be a deer of some type.

You
can see the kill low on the ground and blood on the cheetah's lips and chin.

Yes, there were a few vans watching this cheetah.

We
catch sight of a lion butt, nothing else

Wildebeest
are everywhere

I
found it almost impossible to catch a good shot of a bird. But as Pam is a
bee keeper

I
tried extra hard to get a picture of this Lilac-Breasted Roller.
Not bad, huh?

A
Common Eland

A Lappet-Faced Vulture

Sunset on the Masai Mara as we go home for diner and sleep

The
next morning the Lapped Faced Vultures are waiting for an easy early meal

Most
of the group had left in the wee hours to take a balloon ride over the Masai
Mara. From what they later told us, it was a wonderful time. Consequently,
this morning's safari consisted of very few of us.

As
luck would have it, about 15 minutes out, I looked up and told Hodge I saw a
feline head. He looked, didn't see anything, but backed up
anyway. This resulted in some of the best pictures from the Africa trip in
my opinion.

"MY"
Leopard

He,
I assume its a "he", was stunningly beautiful. He sat an posed
for us for the longest while. Took my breath away

Even
his back and sides are stunning

Magnificent ! Simply Magnificent !

You ought
to see the leopard pictures on our Christmas present to each other - a 50"
HD TV. You can count the whiskers and eye lashes !! Down right
awe-inspiring.

All
these mongooses were almost a let-down.

A pride of lions in the distance

A Black-Backed Jackal

Very
fortunate to see him. The deer appears
interested, but not afraid, as
he crosses the trail in front of us.

Coke's
Hartebeest graze

Topi also share the Masi Mara

Again, we see Secretary Birds

We
pass a small stream - pretty dried up.

And
we come upon two lions - a male and female. Hodge tells us they are on
their "honeymoon".

A
male and female will pair off for mating. They will stay by themselves,
mating as many as 150 times an hour (?). Afterwards,
a pregnant female will go off by herself to deliver. With her cubs, she
will hide until they have grown large enough that a male in her pride will not
kill them. They are therefore on their honeymoon at this
point.

I
think he's saying, "Pay attention to me, damn it!"

He
looks up as if to tell us to mind our own business.

She
is playing hard to get.

She's not too attentive

And
they slowly walk away.

Yes, there are people that close - better stay in the vehicle.

Just
a view of us watching the vans, watching the lions.

OK,
believe me now? These roads are bad.

Completely
sheared an axle.

The driver radioed for assistance for his passenger,

and
then stayed with the van all night and until help arrived.

Those
pesky Vervet monkeys were all over the grounds. A young Maasai warrior was assigned
to keep them away, using his stick, club and stones. Well, he actually
spend most of his time flirting with all the young ladies and sitting with them
on a bench far down the grounds, in the shade.

Babies
are cute - and a bit of bother to the mom.

They
seem to cling and ride - never more than an arm's length away.

Oh, I forgot, nursing is also a high priority.

There's
a story behind this next series of four terribly out of focus pictures. We
had just been seated for breakfast when we saw this monkey come
down from the roof to the top of a short interior wall in the dining room.
You'll barely
see the baby clinging to her front. Mom's looking a the next table
over - which is empty of people, but not possibilities.

She
jumps to the table and as quickly as she could, she takes all the sugar
packets

from
the sugar bowl and jumps back to the ledge.

I'm
trying to take picture of this theft, but she moves too quickly.

She
jumps from the short wall to a support, and from there the edge of the roof.

Once
there she tears open sugar packets, spits out the paper, and eats the
sugar.

Poor
baby can only watch - but I'm certain it learned......

Out
to the Hippo Pool. I am certain everyone was entranced by this pool.
Jackie and I were not the only ones who walked the elevated boardwalk to the
large building at its end, overlooking the pool. It was both amusing and
relaxing to sit and watch these huge creatures bob up and down, wiggle their
ears to clear them of water, and occasionally let out a bellow.

Of course the birds watched.

There were only two or three,

but they were always there.

Of
course, with that many hippos, there is bound to be great expanses of hippo poo

The
Hippo Pool had many zebras that wandered in and around the observation
deck.

As
you see, birds enjoyed a free ride.

As
we walked back the long boardwalk to the main grounds,

we
had to go through a troop of our favorite monkeys.

They
watched and lay in wait, acting sooo very innocent.

We're
just watching, relaxing in the sun, doing a little grooming......

And
about that time, several made a sneak attack on Jackie's purse and a plastic
gift bag from the gift store.

I
didn't get pictures of this short battle, as I was trying to shoo them
away. ( OK, I was actually laughing so hard I couldn't take
pictures. ) Jackie was not frightened so much as she was angry.

I
perhaps mentioned that monkeys and baboon were exceptionally adept at getting
into and taking items from your luggage or your room. I forgot to tell you
about the warning we got specific to baboons. We were told they were
particularly attracted to people carrying something with two hands. They
would casually walk by or sneak up, and slap you sharply on your behind. This
sharp slap would cause many people to drop what ever they had in two hands and
the baboon, or his partner, would make off with the plunder.

The
next morning we're out on safari

See
the animals spread throughout the plain?

What beautiful country.

As
I said before, these trees are iconic - this one all by itself, out on the
plain, was stunning

We
come across a large pride of lions - at least nine (there's a female out of
frame to the left)

We
have a dominate male, several male and female cubs, and three mature females

I
love these next two pictures. A female is napping and a cub starts to
wander.

As he gets a bit further, she slowly turns her head, and opens one
eye.

Just as any mother would, she's keeping an eye on her child.

Haven't
you seen a house cat posed just like this?

No, this cub isn't looking for trouble..... Sure!

I
think all cats, wild or domestic act and look alike.

Here's
our lion,

And
here's our Suzie,

And
here's a young lion,

And here's our Sophie

Ah, a nap

Just a big yawn

Wan'a play?

And here's the dinner table - we were told that Wildebeest are often led or
around zebras.

This
because the Wildebeest has very poor eyesight, while the zebra has excellent
sight and smell.

The
zebra therefore end up protecting the wildebeests inadvertently.

This
lovely tree is called the Sausage Tree. You'll see the reason more clearly
in the next picture.

The
fruit of this tree looks quite like large sausages hanging down. We
only saw one in Kenya.

Hodge
told us that no animal will eat the fruit, nor do the natives. We saw a
second such tree in Tanzania.

There
Samuel confirmed what Hodge said, but I think he told us that there was some way
natives used the

fruit
by cutting them lengthwise and through a fermenting process, got some liquid
from them. Just can't remember.

And
there were ostriches

And
we ran across a lone female lion

And
we can't have enough elephants

Notice
he has a rider

We found another baby in this group

Did
you know that elephants are either right or left handed?

You
can tell by looking at their tusks. The shorter, most used one

is
which "handed" he or she is.

The
baby, as usual, is the show stopper

We
got the nicest pictures of it staying almost too close to Mom

Yes,
they were that close - and we we didn't seem to bother them as they ate and
walked around - the large males and the mother with babies did keep an eye on
us, and the babies were almost always on the far side of and adult, or in the
middle of the group.

A
pretty blurry long distance picture of a migrating herd of Wildebeest

Apropos
of nothing, I just thought this a pretty bush.

unfortunately,
the variety of colors really didn't come through

We
came upon a Maasai giraffe, and got a couple good shots.

I
wanted to go down to the hippo pool in the evening, as that is when they come
out of the pool to wander around and eat. This is also the prime
time to get a "yawn shot." None of my yawn shots really came out - there
were over 25 such shots and these terrible ones are the
"best".

Ken
was also attempting to get the yawn shot and I hope he did better.

The
problem is that you had to get a close up and you never knew which one, or where, would
yawn. If you spotted one, you had to swing the camera, hope it would
immediately focus, and you could get the lapse between punching the button and
the shutter clicking down to a very minimum. An then it was dusk, on top
of every thing else.

Are
these enough excuses ?

And
then it was too dark for me to gat any pictures - I really didn't see them leave
the pool.

-
BUT -

Hippos
are very dangerous. And, as we said earlier, we were always escorted to
our cabins at night. This night the escorts were careful not to lets
us get more than about ten feet behind them - hippos were wandering the grounds -
weren't they Allison?

We
started down the path to the cabins and at one point, as the hippos got within
about 30 feet of us, we dragged our feet to make noise so the hippos would know
where we were and we wouldn't startle them. We even left the path
for a while as they drew too close. As we got near our cabin,
Allison was pleased to run to her cabin and tightly close the
door.

I
asked our escort, as they wandered away from us, if I could try a picture.
Several others nearer the main building were using flash cameras. . Sure, I know that a
flash from my camera is good for maybe ten feet, but I had to try. The
result is below. beyond the tree you may be able to see two shapes.
There are actually three hippos there. This is the best I could
do. I'm pretty certain others there got some good pictures.

The
next morning we're again out on the Mara, on the way out to our next
lodge.

Do
you see something behind the termite mound?

We
thought we did.

And we were correct - a lion.

We
thought this a great way to close this trip.

BUT The
best was yet to come!

As we were about to leave, we saw the very rare,
very endangered
Black Rhino!

He
was on the run, not stopping for even a moment

What
a treat! What a way to end this safari!!

And
with that Black Rhino excitement just behind us, we leave Masai Mara.

I
may be wrong, but I think this was by far and away, the best stop on the entire
trip!

On
to either Nairobi and the airport to leave for the States

or

On
to the airport to catch a plane to Tanzania.

We
were very sad to see some of the group leave us. Very fine people &
great companions.